Experts think Indo-European languages spread outwards from the Middle East along with agriculture.

Scientists led by Remco Bouckaert, from the University of Auckland, in New Zealand, traced the origins of Indo-European languages using a method borrowed from evolutionary biologists.

Instead of comparing DNA from different species, the researchers looked at “cognates”, which are words with a common origin. One example is “mother”, “mutter” (German) and “madre” (Spanish).

Such similar words could not plausibly have occurred by chance. By modelling the evolution of hundreds of such words through time, the researchers were able to pinpoint their birthplace in what is now modern Turkey.